


we could be safer, just for one day

by swwf17



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Canon Divergence, F/M, Fix-It, Originally Posted on Tumblr, post 2x10
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-14
Updated: 2017-05-14
Packaged: 2018-10-31 12:50:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10899696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swwf17/pseuds/swwf17
Summary: Sort of 'what if' tag to "We Can be Heroes"





	we could be safer, just for one day

**Author's Note:**

> *continues to aggressively ignore season 2 canon*

Alex and Maggie have a bet going: how long before Kara caves, and talks to James again?

At first it’s a joke; they chuckle and smirk.

“Two days,” Maggie declares. She has another carton of vegan ice cream in her fridge, ready to go.

Alex snorts. “Days? How about hours?”

A week passes before Alex starts to actually worry.

She leaves a lengthy voicemail on her sister’s phone. “ _Kara…”_

But Kara knows what comes next, so she ignores the calls, the texts, the frustrated voicemail, and refuses to listen to her sister’s sound advice.

Refuses to think about dumb ol’ James Olsen and his crazy death wish.

(Refuses to admit that every night, she searches the city for his heartbeat, unable to sleep until she hears the strong, steady pulse, her own heart rate skyrocketing any time there’s a stutter, a quickening, a stall.

…Dumb ol’ James Olsen.)

She successfully avoids the inevitable for another three days, but then Alex catches her, the lure of fresh doughnuts after a brutal fight with a Gordanian too tempting to pass up.

“Kara,” she says, offering her a cruller. “What the _hell_?”

Kara nearly chokes at the ambush, sputtering around the doughnut.

When she at last ceases coughing, chewing, and swallowing, she’s prepared to offer a pat _what are you talking about?_

But Alex’s raised eyebrow dares her to play to dumb.

“I won’t support it,” Kara finally grumbles, the appeal of the pastries rapidly wearing off. She tosses her unfinished, half-eaten cruller back in the box.

“This is bad,” Alex mutters at the discarded food.

And Kara’s already walking away, emotion roiling in her gut, making her cape feel too hot and heavy on her back. She tugs at her collar.

“Kara, what’s wrong?” Because _something_ is wrong. That much Alex knows. Aside from the obvious, anyway; she hasn’t seen Kara this angry in quite some time.

“They’re going to get hurt,” Kara says, throat dry. And that’s all. It’s that simple.

It’s it?

“Of course they’ll get hurt,” Alex sets the box on a nearby desk, covering the distance between them in a few quick strides. “Just like I get hurt. Just like _you_ get hurt,” she feels like she has to add. Her sister doesn’t like to admit that she’s not entirely invulnerable.  

But Kara’s stubborn. “I have powers, and you have training.” She doesn’t mean to snap, but she does all the same.

Alex takes it in stride. “Something else is bothering you,” she counters, and it sounds like an accusation. Maybe because it is.

“No, it's—nothing else is bothering me,” Kara insists, tone edging close to something decidedly defensive. “James is just being stupid—”

“James?” Alex interrupts.

Kara blinks. “Yes, Jame—”

“What about Winn?”

“He’s being stupid too!” Kara cries in exasperation.

“But you said _James.”_

“I—so what?”  

“So why are you being so hard—”

“I don’t know!” Kara shouts, whirling to face her sister. Alex is forced to take a step back, and is surprised to see tears in Kara’s eyes. “I don't—I don’t know I…when I think about…about James being hurt I can't—” she’s looking everywhere and nowhere at once, rapidly blinking away the tears, heart rate elevated and hands spread in a helpless gesture.

“…Kara…” Alex’s voice is quiet, but she can’t help the tiny, sad laugh that creeps in. Her sister is—and probably always will be—so _clueless_ about this sort of thing. Not that Alex is any _expert,_ of course. But Kara makes her look like an authority on the subject, which is saying something. “…You think maybe you called it quits with James too soon?”

Her sister looks _offended._ “ _No._ This isn’t about…that.”

“You sure?”

“…”

Kara _is_ sure. She’s sure that they’re better as friends. Because…because friends are _safe_. Friends are easy. Anything _beyond_ that is…

Moderately terrifying?

A sure fire recipe for disaster?

One big horrifying question mark?

“…No.”

She pushed so hard. Turned tail as fast as she could, all to avoid…this! Fighting. Disagreements. Dangers. Risk.

She thought that keeping James at an arm’s length would keep him _safe._ That’s what she would tell anyone who asked, anyway. She knows, on a deeper, more selfish level, that it was a move to keep _her_ safe.Itwould spare her any further feelings of being left alone, left behind, abandoned.

(She can’t _do_ it anymore, she can’t _lose_ anyone else…)

Her eyes are burning, in that annoying _crying_ kind of way as opposed to the…literal, burning, heat-vision kind of way.

_Damn_ Alex for bringing this up, for luring her here under false, powdered-sugar pretenses. Damn Alex for making her question something she thought she’d put to bed months ago.

Except, not really, of course. Alex is smiling at her, and rubbing her shoulder, and she doesn’t even look smug about it. Just…maybe a little knowing, and maybe a little amused.

Kara groans, miserable and exhausted. Because _ew, gross, feelings._ The grease-stained box of doughnuts finds its way into her hands, and Alex’s sage advice at last finds its way to Kara’s alien ears.

“Talk to James.”


End file.
